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September 18, 2016

[General Singh said initial reports suggested
that Jaish-e-Muhammad, a militant group based in Pakistan, had carried out the
attack. India has blamed the group for an attack on the Pathankot air force
base in January as well as numerous other attacks in recent decades.]

By Hari Kumar and Geeta Anand

Indian soldiers arriving
at the army base, in Uri, Kashmir, that heavily armed
militants

stormed on Sunday. Credit Mukhtar
Khan/Associated Press

NEW
DELHI — In one of the
deadliest attacks in the disputed region of Kashmir, heavily armed militants
stormed an Indian Army base near the border with Pakistan early Sunday, killing
17 soldiers.

India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, in a
series of pointed comments on Twitter, appeared to accuse Pakistan of being
behind the attack.

“I am deeply disappointed with Pakistan’s
continued and direct support to terrorism and terrorist groups,” he said.

India’s director general of military
operations, Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, said in a televised statement that the
militants were “foreign terrorists” carrying items with “Pakistani markings.”
He said he had contacted his counterpart in the Pakistani Army to express “our
serious concerns.”

General Singh said initial reports suggested
that Jaish-e-Muhammad, a militant group based in Pakistan, had carried out the
attack. India has blamed the group for an attack on the Pathankot air force
base in January as well as numerous other attacks in recent decades.

In an interview on Sunday, Mohammad Nafees
Zakaria, a spokesman for the Pakistani Ministry for Foreign Affairs, rejected
allegations of Pakistani involvement.

The Indian Army said that at 5:30 a.m., the
attackers, carrying AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, entered the grounds of
the base in Uri, a town in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir that is
among those closest to the de facto border with Pakistan.

Four militants were killed in the ensuing
fighting, said S. D. Goswami, a spokesman for the army’s Northern Command,
which oversees Kashmir.

India and Pakistan have been locked in a
dispute over the Himalayan region since the two countries secured independence
from Britain in 1947. There has been a resurgence of protests in the
Indian-administered portion since early July, when Indian security forces
killed a 22-year-old militant leader, Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

Young people have taken to the streets to
demonstrate, many by pelting stones at security forces, who have retaliated by
firing pellet guns and rifles. More than 70 people, most of them civilians,
have been killed, and thousands have been injured, including many members of
the security forces.

The latest attack is sure to raise tensions
between the two countries, which have fought three wars since independence, two
of them over Kashmir. India has long accused Pakistan of sponsoring militant
attacks in the region.

Syed Ata Hasnain, a retired lieutenant
general formerly with the Uri brigade, said by telephone from New Delhi that it
was imperative that India respond vigorously to the attack.

“You can’t defend every piece of land along a
750-kilometer-long Line of Control, but you should retaliate to send a strong
message across the border,” he said, referring to the demarcation, about 470
miles.

In a statement on Sunday, the army said a
large number of troops had been stationed at the Uri base after returning from
a tour of duty. They were housed in tents and other temporary shelters, which
caught fire during the attack, resulting in heavy casualties.

The area around Uri is hilly, heavily
forested and crisscrossed by the Jhelum River and many streams. Substantial
forces from India and Pakistan are stationed there, all but eyeball to eyeball
in some places.

“The militants rolled over from top of the
hill and entered from the rear side of the infantry base,” Mr. Goswami said by
telephone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India wrote
on Twitter: “We strongly condemn the cowardly terror attack in Uri. I assure
the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished.”

The home minister, Mr. Singh, wrote that he
had convened a security meeting in New Delhi to review the security situation
after the attack and had canceled a planned trip to Russia and the United
States. The army said on Twitter that Gen. Dalbir Singh, the army chief, was
rushing to the attack site.

The home minister, after the security
meeting, added on Twitter, “There are definite and conclusive indications that
the perpetrators of Uri attack were highly trained, heavily armed and specially
equipped.” In another Twitter statement, he said, “Pakistan is a terrorist
state and it should be identified and isolated as such.”

Pakistani officials responded that the
allegations were unfounded and an attempt by India to divert attention from its
oppression of the uprising in Kashmir. “India is trying to hide its crimes
against humanity in occupied Kashmir,” Mr. Zakaria said.

Mohammed Aslam, who lives near the base in
Uri, said that he had heard gunfire beginning before sunrise on Sunday and that
it had continued for at least two hours.

“We were shocked and surprised when the
firing started,” he said.

Farooq Ahmad Khan, a teacher who also lives
near the army camp, said he had not heard “this kind of firing” in the area for
20 years.

A blast followed, Mr. Khan said, and “then we
saw heavy smoke coming out of the army camp from three different places.”

A helicopter arrived soon afterward, he said,
and began making trips into and out of the camp.

Last week, India refused to allow an activist
from Kashmir to leave the country to speak at a session of the United Nations
Human Rights Council in Geneva. The activist, Khurram Parvez of the Jammu
Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, has since been detained by the police, and
he remained in custody on Sunday.